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Fix the Income Gap or Face a ‘Terrible Future’ |
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About three of four workers lost real income since 1979, he says, despite a 40 percent increase in productivity. In 2001, the average CEO of a Fortune 500 company earned an astonishing 424 times more than the average worker—up from 40 times more in 1979. Yet, he says, the government has done nothing about it.
In a new Point of View column on the AFL-CIO website, Ornstein, whose most recent book is Class Counts: Education, Inequality and the Shrinking Middle Class, says:
In short, we have allowed the government to ignore income gaps between the superrich and ordinary Americans; and by remaining indifferent, we are witnessing the slow and steady decline in the standard of living of the vast majority of Americans. Failure to understand that the recent past and present have seared the American dream in terms of class, opportunity and mobility—and could consign us to a terrible future.
Rather than catering to corporations, our lawmakers “need to get a grip on reality and do what is right by representing the people,” Ornstein says. He adds that elected leaders should “help level the playing field at the starting gate and provide multiple chances to succeed.”
…the vast majority of Americans, need and deserve security, safety nets and social/health programs that help provide a descent way of life. We just seem unable to make an issue out of growing inequality, or the decimation of the middle class, fearing that it sounds un-American or like class warfare. It is puzzling why the rich should not be asked to bear their full share of government burdens, especially now with the government in deep debt.
If working Americans don’t force the government to seriously address the issue of income inequality, we risk losing our national reason and humanism, he says.
The only way to solve this crisis, Ornstein concludes, is for the nation:
to make some painful changes involving a shared moral foundation and a sense of justice and by adopting new policies that protect American workers from Big Business and from foreign competition, providing progressive taxes and regulating markets and marching to the ballot boxes in record numbers in order to elect people willing to make these kinds of changes.
Click here to read the entire Point of View column.
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One Sick Kin Away From Being Fired
A Poem by David G. Hurlburt© 2007
It is hard for a family to make both ends meet,
Both of us working so we are not on the street.
Minimum wage workers need every single dime;
They also need some emergency kin care time.
We work hard, and at night and we’re so tired,
Just one sick child away from being fired.
Why can’t we use sick leave to care for our kin,
When the Bosses fires us for that is a just a sin.
Not any time off, with pay, for short time family care;
When the roll is called up yonder will these managers be there?
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick spouse away from being fired.
Companies protect and defend at all costs their mighty corporate rights
So when you take time off for your family, be prepared to join the fights.
Working families, we need to lobby congress and the legislatures too.
We need a law so are jobs are protected when our child gets the flu..
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired,
Just one sick parent away from being fired.
Providing time for families doesn’t cost it will pay.
It reduces turnover because more employees stay.
It, increases loyalty, dedication and it is caring and kind.
A benefit employees value and it’s one that’s hard to find.
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick self away from being fired.
Too many times we’re fired and end up in the street.
Loss of jobs or pay and our bills we can’t meet.
Bankruptcy from medical bills or the loss of a job,
We loose heart and hope and our kids learn to rob
You can pay to build families or tear them apart.
The dollars spent on sick leave are just a start;
Childcare, after school programs to care for our kids
And medical care for every one even those on the skids.
If you don’t do these things you will still pay the price.
In court costs and prisons and that is not very nice.
A nations economy must serve all the people in the land;
Not greed or the wealthy, government must take a stand.
The social safety net is not just for the poor,
It protects us all from the thief at our door.
There is too much of a gap between the rich and the poor.
Government must change it, or our society will not endure.
Class warfare will erupt and the rich mans heads will roll.
Be fair with tax laws, we want good jobs not be put on the dole.
It is wrong to reward companies who ship jobs overseas.
Punish them with higher taxes unemployment costs and fees.
The rich really can not hire half of us to kill the other half,
Jay Gould was quoted in the 19th century, then he just laughed.
This article inspired me to write a few more lines!